Time Capsule not backing up every hour

It seems that my time machine has a mind of it's own and backs up almost anytime it wants to. An example would be 4 backups in the same hour. thanks for your help!

Reset Time Machine as follows:
Open System Preferences and open Time Machine
Click Change Disk
Click your Time Capsule to highlight it
Click Use for Backups
Normally backups will start up again automatically after 30-60 minutes. If not, click the clock shaped Time Capsule icon at the top of your screen to manually start backups again.
See if that helps. Do you have any applications like Entourage, Aperture, VM Fusion or Parallels on your computer? These and other files like them have a "monolithic" file structure. What this means is that any change made to the program will result in the entire database being backed up.
For example, if you are using Entourage and make only one small change to an email, the entire database will be backed up. This takes up a lot of space on your backup drive, not to mention time.

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My mouse becomes impaired when time capsule starts backing up (every hour); anyone hav a remedy?

My mouse beccoommmmes impaired when time capsssule starts backing up (eevery hour). Is there a remedy for this?

UPDATE:
I think I've found a solution.... Though I'm a bit reluctant to post it already because I'd really like to see if it works over time... Anyway, here is the interesting post I found by Mr. Caliostro:
... sure, go into your Airport Utility application, inside Utilities inside Applications. Click on Manual Setup when your TC appears in the window. Click on the Wireless tab. You will find a pulldown menu there called Channel. Select your channel & Update your TC settings. I set mine to channel 1 to try it, & it made a tiny improvement. How close is your TC to your mac? Does the interference reduce if you ove further away? Perhaps swapping from 802.11g/n to 802.11n or vice-versa, may help? (depending if your setup can work on 11n-only). Perhaps switching from 2.5ghz to 5ghz or vice-versa may help? both 11n & 11g can work at 5ghz as well as 2.5ghz... Let me know how you go!
I set the 5GHz channel to 48 and the 2.4GHz to 1. Of course I changed these settings completely randomly since I don't know anything about these things but it actually seems to work pretty fine! No more sluggish mouse during Time Capsule back ups!

Time Machine and Time Capsule not backing up

I could really use some help please. A little while ago I could back up to my Time Capsule via Time Machine. Then it became slow. Then it decided that it couldn't find the backup disk. After 1-2 hours of waiting, then I couldn't stop the backup even when it wasn't backing up, other than via Activity Monitor.
I have tried suggestions offered such as:
Deleting the, com.apple.TimeMachine.plist (although not the one below it, i.e. com.apple.TimeMachine.plist.lockfile)
Stopping backup via Activity monitoring
Resetting Time Capsule
Powering down and back on again - everything
Starting in safe mode and restart etc.
I am at a loss to back up my data. Yet more hours lost trying to resolve this situation. Shouldn't back via Time Machine just work??
I see my Time Capsule as connected in Finder.
I finally got to the point of, "I don't belive this", when Safari didn't function correctly, Activity Monitor didn't open.
My operating system is Lion 10.7.5 on my iMac. I have got Filevault enabled. I am using Parallels 7.
Any ideas that work, greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Alani

Hello Alani,
Thanks for the question, and welcome to Apple Support Communities.
I understand you are having issues with Time Machine backing up to a Time Capsule. I also understand that you have already completed some in-depth troubleshooting. While you may or may not have already covered the steps outlined in this article, It may be useful as it links to many relevant resources:
Time Machine: Troubleshooting backup issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3275
Thanks,
Matt M.

HT3275 Time Machine Error (Time Capsule) - Not backing up "problem may be temporary"

Hi,
I am running Time Machine backing up to a Time Capsule (2TB version).
Since yesterday the backups have not performed as scheduled, with a vague error saying files were not copied and this may be temporary.
The Time Capsule software is up to date, I've unplugged it and plugged it back in, and have restarted the mac (twice!).
Still getting the error - it suggests I repair the backup disk in Disk Utility but it is not displayed in Disk Utility so not sure how to do that.
How temporary is temporary and what can I do to repair the disk if it isn't showing in Disk Utility?
Cheers.

Welcome to Lion.. did you just update again to 7.4.. no doubt some new bugs will now flow into the network.
You need to firstly download and use utility 5.6 as the version in lion is useless.
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482
If the TC will not be recognised you need to plug into it by ethernet.. I guess you are using wireless.. even worse on Lion.. and press the reset and redo the setup. Lion has no idea what went before, only what comes after.
To verify the disk you need to mount the sparsebundle.. but to do that you need to see it which means direct connection and reset.
See http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html
A5 how to verify.. but frankly I doubt it has anything to do with it.

Time capsule not backing up my iMac

Apple replaced my Time capsule with a new one. Old one backed up 2 x macbooks and my iMac. The new one, whilst backed up the two mac books as before, tells me on my iMac that: Time Machine could not complete back up becuase there is a problem with my username or password. I put in the password - same as used on the macbooks, it accepts it, but then tells me the back up has failed again. Round and round we go. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

See #C17 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.

Time capsule not backing up - spotlight doesn't stop indexing!

I have asked Spotlight not to index the backup drive however it ignores this and continues to try and do so. However it continues to estimate index time without providing a time, and hence the backup never proceeds.
Rebooting hasn't helped, and I'm even pluggintg the MBP into the TC via ethernet.
Any ideas please?

I'm having the same problem. Added the time capsule to the privacy list but this doesn't appear to prevent indexing. Basically every time time machine backup kicks off it indexes the time capsule, which is of no value to me. I believe this is a recent issue, but I can't say for certain what changed. Recent software update? Anyway, did you ever get to the bottom of it? My backups do complete, however it slows down the process and of course i can't use spotlight while its "estimating/completing" index of time capsule.

TM and Time capsule: stopped backing up 12 hours ago

I've got a TC alternating hourly backups with a D-Link NAS, and up to late last night, they've been working perfectly in tandem.
However, this afternoon I noticed that when TM tries to back up to TC, I get an error: The backup disk image "/Volumes/My TC-1/ Admin's Mac mini.sparsebundle" is already in use.
This TC backs up two other local Macs and they are being backed up fine.
I should add that late last night I was experimenting with a couple of TM logging apps (TimeTracker, BackupLoupe, and the Time Machine Buddy widget). I deleted those post-haste, rebooted, but still have the same problem.
I've opened my TM device in the Finder and can see the path to my last backup session: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups 1/Backups.backupdb/Admin’s Mac mini/2013-02-17-145625, as well as a number of earlier backups within the sparse bundle, so I assume I can somehow pick up where they left off.
Two questions:
1. What should I do to get TM for this volume back on the rails and working again?
2. How would I do a full restore from an earlier backup to my boot volume?
Thanks!

@Linc Davis: Thanks for the heds up. I'll keep that in mind.
However, my D-Link is working perfectly. It's the Time Capsule that wasn't being recognized.
I'll have to close this thread, though, as I've got it back to working by turning off sharing, rebooting the TC, renaming the target disk, and finally re-enabiling sharing (nothing seemed to work until sharing was re-enabled. {shrug} ). My TC is now recognized in the list of available volumes, and is now backing up. I was about to update my question above when your response appeared.
Thanks for checking in and for your advice.
-T

Time Capsule not backing up - Most of storage space used.

I have a a 1TB time Capsule that only has 50.0 GB left. It has worked fine until of late. It now will not back up no matter how small I make the file to backup. It tells me backup disk image could not be mounted. It was giving me another error message until I lowered the file size to backup. Suggestions and also is there a way to delete Time Machine usage space (not other files) from Time Capsule. Guessing that it is not deleting to make room for more. Help.

Sorry to hear that you are having problems. Before you think seriously about erasing the Time Capsule, it would be a good idea to make sure that it will have adequate space to backup your computer(s) and leave plenty of space for incremental backups.
Right click your Hard Drive icon and select Get Info to get the specifics for each of your computers. The general rule of thumb is that your Time Capsule should have enough space to backup both computers and another half of the space will still be available for backups. For example, your two computers have a total of 250Gigs stored, so you would need a minimum of a 500Gig Time Capsule.
If you decide to erase the Time Capsule, open AirPort Utility. Click on Manual Setup, then click on the Disk icon at the top of pane. Then click on Disk just below the icons and you will see an "Erase" option. Allow plenty of time for the process, overnight is a good option.
When you are ready to try backups again, you will need to completely reset Time Machine by selecting your Time Capsule as the disk you want to use and click Use for Backups. You will need to do this for both computers.
Try to use an ethernet cable for the first backup by connecting to one of the LAN ports on the Time Capsule and your computer. Allow plenty of time for this. It might take 1-2 days. Once the backup for the first computer is done, then do the other computer the same way. You can probably use wireless for incremental backups since they will be much smaller and faster.
Post back on your progress.

Time Capsule not backing up after 1.5 years

Can someone help with this message? I am running time machine to back up my imac and MacBoo Pro also. imac is running snow leopard and macbookpro is running mt lion. "This backup is to large for the backup disk. the backup requires 12.58 GB but only 596.8MG are avaliable. Time Machine needs work space on teh backup disk, in addition to the space required to sotre backups. Open time machine preferences to select a larger backup disk or make the backup smaller by exluding files.

squkid,
we could run a number of test what has gone wrong, however the quickest and safest way to make it all work again is to redo the backups.
This is a very good article by one of senior members of this forum which explains how to go about things step by step.
http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
I suggest you do as per Q5 and erase the whole set of backups and start over.
If you work over WiFi it is a good practice to do the first initial backups of your iMac and MBP on the cable connection to the Time Capsule. This will save time.
Then the incremental backups can go over WiFi.
Post if you have further problems.

Time Capsule not backing up - but not getting any messages of failure

Hello, I have had my Time Capsule installed successfully for about 5 months. Two weeks ago, it apparently stopped backing up. I was regularly seeing the hard drive icon appear on my desktop and the spinning icon in the top right hand menu bar, so I was assuming all was well. But recently something else cause me to open time machine to look for a file to restore and I found that Time Capsule hadn't backed anything up recently!
I received no messages, got no failure notices - nothing!
Now, when the icon appears, I have checked on the status and right now it says "Indexing backup." I don't know what stage it stops, because the icon just quietly disappears.
What should I do?

A clue may be lurking in your logs. See #A1 in [Time Machine - troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum), for a handy widget that will display the backup messages from your logs.
If that shows errors, see #C2 there.
If it doesn't, but shows very small amounts of data copied, see #D5 there.

Browsers stalling, Time Capsule not backing up

Hey everyone,
I've been reading in all the relevant forums—reposting this from Time Capsule forum because I'm not sure which is more appropriate—and I can't quite find something that matches the problem I'm having, so here goes. If I'm rehashing something that's been covered, a link would be much appreciated.
Browsers on my MBP are completely choking on any and all websites, and Time Machine is unable to run. Our other computers (which don't use the Time Capsule for backup) have no problem with websites. And my MBP seems to be running Mail, Tweetdeck, and printing ok. But for some reason my browsers are chronically stalling (or taking minutes and minutes to load sites like CNN).
At first I attributed it to a faulty AirPort card in my MBP; I'd taken it in to get the screen replaced, and they replaced the AirPort card for some reason. I've since had that one replaced, but the problem persists.
It's not just one browser, either. I mostly use Safari, but Firebox seems to have the same problem (or it will load CNN, then choke on the page I nav to afterward). It's also inconsistent; the past few days have been ok, but tonight it wouldn't load anything. Then it inexplicably started working briefly.
Often, when I quit out of Safari after a page has stalled, I get the beach ball in the Finder for about 10 minutes afterward. The beach ball goes away after that.
I'm getting a signal just fine, so it's not that. I've noticed my Time Capsule keeps making a start-up sound—like the disk is waking up—when I launch a browser, but nothing happens. The dot on the front is green, so there are no problems. I've run the AirPort Admin many times, and it's not showing anything.
I've checked for malware too and cleared anything that looked suspicious. I just ran Time Machine Buddy, and it said: "No space left on device. Stopping backupd to allow ejection of backup destination disk." But my Time Machine prefs say I have 970 gigs available.
Ugh, really frustrated with this. Any help would be really appreciated.

See These Excellent Links by Pondini...
http://pondini.org/TM/Time_Capsule.html
Section C Here > http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

HT201250 Time Capsule not backing up

The backup disk image “/Volumes/Time Capsule/Velasquez MacBook Pro.sparsebundle” is already in use.
How do I fix this?

Restart your computer and the Time Capsule. In most of the cases, this should solve the problem. If it doesn't work, read > http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html

Time capsule not backing up since upgrading to Yosemite

Anyone else having this problem?

These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.
Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.
The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select
SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages
from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select
View ▹ Show Log List
from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
In the top right corner of the Console window, there's a search box labeled Filter. Initially the words "String Matching" are shown in that box. Enter the word "Starting" (without the quotes.) You should now see log messages with the words "Starting * backup," where * represents any of the words "automatic," "manual," or "standard."
Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Note the timestamp of the last "Starting" message that corresponds to the beginning of an an abnormal backup. Now
CLEAR THE WORD "Starting" FROM THE TEXT FIELD
so that all messages are showing, and scroll back in the log to the time you noted. Select the messages timestamped from then until the end of the backup, or the end of the log if that's not clear. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.
☞ If all you see are messages that contain the word "Starting," you didn't clear the text field.
☞ The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. Don't post more than is requested.
Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.
Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.
☞ Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

Time Capsule Not backing up

The backup disk image “/Volumes/Heather Villerot's Time Cap/Macintosh.sparsebundle” is already in use.
I keep receiving this error message and don't know how to fix it. I use the cap as my router and all of that is working fine. I only back up one computer onto the cap.
Any help would be greatly appreicated. Thank you! Heather

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
http://pondini.org/TM/C12.html

Time machine not backing up after Mavericks installation

Just upgraded to Mavericks and now Time Machine seems really buggy. I can manually get it to "back up now" but its not doing automatic backups anymore. I also get the "preparing backup" message which lasts for a long time, maybe because its not backing up every hour? I use a LaCie external drive for my time machine backups. I have tried several restarts of the Mac as well as the external drive. Also added my time machine drive to the Privacy section of Spotlight. I did have to power down the external drive during Mavericks install due to it hanging up after waiting several hours. I have found that when my computer becomes unresponsive occassionally , the external drive seems to be hung with the light blinking on it. I have had incidents that I had to shut off the external drive, reboot and restart the drive. That would be the only thing that would "unfreeze" my computer.

It sounds like the backup drive is failing. You should start a new backup immediately on another drive.

Time Capsule not backing up every hour

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